Baseball’s reign as America’s pastime may be in the past.
In past generations, baseball was everything. That excitement for the sport has failed to carry on into recent times.
The recorded television viewing of the World Series tells the story.
The World Series in 1973 was watched by an estimated 34,750,000 people nationwide while the most recent World Series barely cracked 15 million with 15,200,000 as recorded by Baseball Almanac.
The on-going trend of declining viewership has put those that still worship the sport in a scary place when the thought of competing with America’s new darling, football, arises.
When baseball’s popularity was at it’s peak, it didn’t have much competition because at the time football was still earning it’s stripes.
To put it metaphorically, baseball was leaning back with its feet up being showered with society’s admiration.
However, that time has come and gone due to specifically football’s rise.
“According to Variety, ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast drew a 4.5 rating and 11 share in the coveted 18-49 demographic, and 10.84 million viewers.
That easily bested the TBS broadcast of the Yankees-Tigers baseball playoff game, which got a 2.1 rating and 5 share in the demographic, and 6.05 million viewers,” according to an online Oct. 2011 NBC Sports article.
Even when baseball is on the big stage with two of it’s best teams going at it, it still struggles to compete with football.
When looking for opinions from students on campus, they all answered with the same heartbreaking word: BORING.
“Too long, and too boring,” said Delta student Ruben Tachiquin.
Richard Flores agreed.
“It’s not as intense as other sports,” he said.
Baseball just doesn’t have the same flare as its competition.
However, baseball isn’t at its third strike quite yet.
As said before, baseball was everything at one point in time.
It’s how fathers bonded with their sons, it’s how coworkers got along. It connected communities.
Football may be bullying other sports in America, at least in viewership. But it can’t beat the rich history and tradition of baseball.